Celebrity Cameos can make anything better. Just look at sitcom ratings and how they ramp up when another celebrity or big movie star is going to appear in an episode. Another place that has utilized this is the gaming industry, whether getting A-listers to voice a character, using their likeness, or both.
There’s Norman Reedus in “Death Stranding” and Keifer Sutherland voicing the main character in “Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.” But here we’re talking about a rock star appearing in a gang film adaptation, an Oscar-winning actor playing basketball, and a video game hater appearing in two. Check out these surprising celebrity cameos.
Lemmy Kilmister - Scarface: The World Is Yours
This game should actually be a collector's item considering Lemmy Kilmister has passed away, and his cameo is pretty iconic. The man who gave us “Ace of Spades,” “Jailbait,” and “Stone Dead Forever” was dishing out a different kind of metal in the game, as he serves as a source of Tony Montana’s weapons cache.
The game itself is a “What If” scenario where the gamer gets to rebuild Montana’s career after he survives the end scene of the movie. Lemmy is on hand with the weapons needed to help Montana move up the ranks. Lemmy being there almost makes up for Al Pacino not voicing his character.
Will Smith - NBA Jam: Tournament Edition
In the early ‘90s, Will Smith was rebuilding his career on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In one storyline on the sitcom, Smith becomes the star basketball player for his school team, elevating them from whipping boys to unbeatable.
To capitalize on this, the creators of the 1994 “NBA Jam: Tournament Edition” created a cheat code that allowed you to unlock Smith as a player. Looking like the Fresh Prince, it was like you were guiding him to his dreams. You could also unlock Then U.S. President Bill Clinton, his wife Hillary, and his VP Al Gore.
Conan O’Brien - Death Stranding
Here’s the thing about Conan O’Brien making cameos in Video games, he actually dislikes the medium. He has made no secret of this. Yet here, he made an appearance in the Hideo Kojima game “Death Stranding.” He also made an appearance in “Halo 4” as a U.S. marine.
Ironically he does game reviews for Clueless Gamer and is actually paid by companies to play their games. This despite knowing he will probably have nothing positive to say about their product! This puts paid to the old phrase: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
Fred Durst - Fight Club
“Fight Club” is a classic movie that deals with multiple human issues while also adding a Shyamalan style twist. So, of course, it has to be made into a game, and one of the characters in the game is Limp Bizkit's frontman, Fred Durst.
It wasn’t a bad move, especially since Durst proclaims in the song “Livin’ It Up” that he’s “Seen the Fight Club, about 28 times.” He has a passion for the film, and this was arguably the best reward he could get for his fandom. We don’t know about him being so ripped, but he is as athletic in the game as he is on stage.
Ariana Grande - Final Fantasy Brave Exvius
Ariana Grande has been popping up everywhere and doing partnerships with as many brands as she can. There are plenty lining up for this since the pop princess has a vast reach. But her appearing in a Final Fantasy game is next level. But it happened, and she actually has a playable character on “Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.”
She was known as Dangerous Ariane, and it wasn’t her last foray into gaming either. She also features in the smash-hit game “Fortnite,” when she had a special Rift Tour event, where fans get to see a CGI version of her performance. She also has a playable in-game skin.
Gary Busey - Hitman
Gary Busey is easily recognized by his toothy grin and mane of hair. But what many people miss is that he was also once nominated for an Oscar for his performance playing Buddy Holly in the 1978 film “The Buddy Holly Story.”
This makes him a legend, and, therefore a rather surprising addition to the list of “jobs” Agent 47 has on his plate in “Hitman.” It turns out this bonus assassination, code-named “The Wild Card,” is a side mission that has no bearing on the overall game story, but he apparently has proven tough to kill.
David Bowie - Omikron: The Nomad Soul
David Bowie has probably been creating Video game characters long before gaming was a thing. That’s because Ziggy Stardust, a persona he created, pretty much fits the description of an over-the-top space alien character in a game. This is what they latched onto in Omikron: The Nomad Soul.
Besides his appearance as a character, Bowie also created the musical soundtrack for it, and in 2021 during the rise of a particular virus variant, a clip of Bowie’s character encouraging a government uprising went viral on Twitter. Such a pity Bowie never got to see that since he died in 2016.
Ricky Gervais - Grand Theft Auto IV
In order to add more realism to their already realistic and open-world game, Rock Star Games started adding some more environmental elements. Part of this was a comedy club where Ricky Gervais and Kat Williams were doing actual comedy. This isn’t the first celebrity appearance in this game, of course, but it is surprising.
That’s because they’re not interacting with the character but doing actual stand-up comedy that is, in fact, funny. It’s also unique because they’re not constantly on stage, so you could walk in and get Williams, or Gervais, or no one at all, making it even more exciting.
Drew Carey - The Sims
When we’re young, all we want is for popular people to come to our party. They turned that up a notch in The Sims, giving you a celebrity guest to attend your shindig. That celebrity is Drew Carey, the comedian, and actor who, at the time, was famous for his sitcom “The Drew Carey Show.”
This was an unlockable feature that required you to meet certain criteria. For one, your party had to go on for more than two hours and actually have a high satisfaction rating with the guests already there. This would prompt Carey to arrive in his limo to liven things further up.
Shaquille O’Neal - UFC Undisputed 2010
Big Shaq had already made quite an impact in combat sport, albeit the scripted version. This after he made several appearances on various Wrestling promotions. He also started training in MMA around 2000 and was actually toying with the idea of doing some fights, even calling out South Korean fighter Choi Hong-man.
That never materialized, although you could put Shaq into a fight if you pulled out your old UFC Undisputed 2010. He was one of the unlockable fighters in this edition of the game and looks pretty svelte and athletic. Unfortunately, Choi Hong-man wasn’t part of the game, so you can’t set that fight up.
